Sinama Orthography

The Central Sinama language has had an orthography (alphabet) for decades now. However, not many Sama themselves are aware of this, nor is the Philippines Department of Education. Sinama.org is constantly doing write-ups in the Sinama language in order to teach the Sinama orthography and explain reasons that led to decisions made for the Sinama Alphabet. All of these posts are found in this category.

DepEd Davao City in coordination with SIL Philippines and the Sama Dilaut communities of Davao City have developed a spelling guide which is relevant to all Central Sinama dialects and may prove useful for other Sama languages as well. My attendance at the Final Consultation for Sinama Orthography held on July 18th, 2018 in Tawi-Tawi […]

We are proud to announce that for the first time, the Central Sinama to English Dictionary is available for download as an app from Google Play. This dictionary has a wealth of information on the Sinama language. Version 1.0 has 13,325 entries in Sinama and 10,455 English reversal entries. The work of compiling this dictionary […]

I had the pleasure of presenting a paper at the 2nd International Conference on Bajau/Sama Diaspora & Maritime Southeast Asian Cultures addressing the language needs of the various Sinama and Bajaw languages. The paper is currently available on Research Gate: Popularizing a Practical Sinama Orthography Based on its Unique Language Features Full Paper. Here is […]

Why would someone possibly want to know which letters are used most in Sinama? They might be a linguist. They might be a statistician. Best of all, they might be a literacy teacher. Teaching Sama Literacy We’ve been working through a Sama Reading Primer created by a Department of Education workshop in Zamboanga. We have […]